Challenge

For almost 30 years, Naxos has been compiling one of the most extensive collections of studied music in the world. Its library now includes more than a million tracks of classical music, jazz, Chinese music, and books on musical subjects, as well as web radio. For a professional musician, librarian, or music educator, it’s a must-have subscription.

Over the past decade, Naxos successfully navigated the shifting market from CDs to online access as it distributed music to its worldwide client base. Recently, however, it faced another transition. Musicians, students and others were no longer willing to sit in front of their computers, or, heaven forbid, in a music lab, to get access to music. They wanted to stream their favorites on their Smartphones and tablets wherever they were.

Unfortunately, Naxos’s outdated music app was unable to provide that function. Naxos worked with NWN’s custom application development team to take them through the technology transition.

Naxos engaged NWN to create a simple, intuitive mobile app for iPhones and iPads that would give its users the mobility they were looking for. The first engagement went so well, they reengaged NWN to port the application to the Android.

Solution

NWN leveraged its TeamShore™ model for the project, pulling together a team that included a US Business Architect and Technical Architect as well as Beijing Engineers and QA, thus minimizing development costs.

Using their proven agile methodology, The Cube3™, the NWN team walked through more than 100 user stories and design documents with Naxos. In addition, they used an A-B preference process to highlight and focus on the most critical of Naxos’s requirements.

Through a course of six 2-week sprints, the NWN team architected, developed, and tested and deployed the new mobile application. At the same time, the Naxos development team created a completely new set of APIs to feed information from its core system to the mobile app.

The finished app allows users/subscribers to sign up for an account, authenticate through their institution, reset a forgotten password, search for and stream music through their mobile devices, including “Preview NML,” a section showcasing select albums free of charge. The app also offers folders and playlists which are created for use by individuals or shared by administrators and professors. The app is smart enough to adjust its screen size to the device it’s running on.

To help Naxos manage its new customer interface, NWN also implemented Google Analytics to gather data on how the product is being used, evolving, and performing over time.

The NML app by Naxos Digital Services Ltd. is now available for download in the iTunes App Store.

“Always punctual, professional, extremely responsive, and on-budget, the NWN team created a world-class streaming music app allowing us to continue our mission of bringing the best music to the world. Already enjoyed by over hundreds of thousands of classical music lovers, students, and professionals, the NML App will be an important part of our business throughout the coming years.”